New Orleans city attorney cancels all outside legal work, station reports

Michael DeMocker / The Times-PicayuneShelley Midura and other members of the New Orleans City Council tackle the 2010 budget in a recent meeting at City Hall.According to a report by WWL-TV, the administration of Mayor Ray Nagin has begun with threatened budget cuts to essential services by cancelling contracts with at least nine law firms, including those that conduct the city's blight hearings.

Ellis Lucia / The Times-PicayuneCity Attorney Penya Moses-Fields in 2006.City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields told the station that the $1 million cut to her budget by the City Council earlier this month forced her to cancel all city contracts with law firms that do work for her office.

< P>Council sources responded by saying many of the service cuts threatened by Nagin had nothing to do with the budget cuts the council imposed. For instance, they said, nothing the council did should affect hearings on blighted buildings because the city has millions of dollars in federal and state money to fight blight that were not touched by what the council did.